My name is Emilio Valdés Aller and I am 31 years old and live in the city of León which is located in northern Spain. I have been active in the outdoors since childhood when I began to explore mountains with my friends as a twelve year old boy.  Adventure and exploration was our primary objective on these early trips and to find "exits" on the mountain.  And so we began exploring caves, some of them yet to be discovered, unexplored.  I became more and more involved in caving and became qualified as a caving leader/instructor.  In  the summer of 1991, I spent an entire month in the Pyrenees climbing peaks and in the summer of 1992 I went to the Alps to climb Mont Blanc.

I always liked outdoor activities and during the summers I worked as a camp counselor.  I became director of one of these camps and very soon after my appointment as director, I met a boy who was an insulin dependent diabetic.  I remember one night talking with the camp counselors about how I could never inject myself twice a day, because I hated needles.  In February of 1993, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.  Destiny forced me to swallow my own words.  The most difficult thing in the beginning, though, wasn't learning to inject myself or controlling blood sugar, but it was being told that I had to give up my mountain activities.  I didn't like this prospect and did some research on my own, only to find the very few books on the subject of exercise and diabetes saying that diabetics shouldn't practice activities like high altitude mountaineering, climbing, or caving.  I didn't give much credence to these references because I felt they were old and out of print.  Through my years of safe and successful mountain activity, I proved they were wrong.

I owe it to my current endocrinologist who helped me combine diabetes and outdoor activity.  I had also heard about a climber who made an attempt on an 8000 meter peak and he, too, was diabetic.

That year, I traveled to Morocco and in Spain, completed the Camino de Santiago de Compostela by bicycle. Anything seemed possible now, with the help of blood glucose meters and insulin pens.  In November 1993, I went to Mexico and summitted the two highest volcanoes of Mexico: Popocatepetl (5448m) and the Pico de Orizaba (5756m).  In 1994, I returned to the Alps and climbed Mont Blanc and made attempts on the Matterhorn and the Grandes Jorasses.  Also in 1994, I traveled to Portugal and did a 10-day mountain bike trip. I returned to Morocco in 1995 and climbed the Toubkal and climbed in the area known as "The Throats of the Todra."  The most interesting climb we did during this trip was the M´Goum.  It's situated in the middle of a vast desert.

After my experience in Morocco, I contacted the IEMM because I was aware of a study about  "diabetes and climbing".  Through that original contact with IEMM, I became aware of a diabetic climber named Ernest Bladé.

I continued cave exploration and climbing in the Picos de Europa area of northern Spain, where I was part of a team which discovered a cave more than 600 meters deep and had never been visited before.  There are few feelings that can be compared with the one that you feel when you light up the gallery of a cave in which no human has ever been.  In October of 1996, I went to Madeira Island with my girlfriend, Mariam, and there we visited the great "Lebadas".  In that same year, I climbed in the Pyrenees.

In the fall of 1997 we prepared for an expedition to Nepal, to climb Mera Peak (6442m). Unfortunately we never made it.  As fate had it, we suffered a serious traffic accident on our way to the airport and it took us more than a year to recover from the physical trauma.  We had thought about another trip to Nepal, but when I found out about IDEA 2000, we postponed our Nepal trip in order for me to take part in the Aconcagua expedition.

My diabetes management is intensive therapy using multiple daily injections, with lispro and NPH insulins. During my climbing and outdoor trips, I bring redundant diabetes supplies, including backup meters, and distribute those supplies to the members of my team.  I also take Glucobay100 pills.

I enjoy giving slide shows after each of my trips.  I have also had articles and photos published. Mariam is a diabetes nurse educator and has provided wonderful support for the projects I've undertaken. I am a sales representative for the company/bakery that produces "Bimbo", a popular brand of bread in Spain.

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